Google’s Self-Driving Cars Claim Their First Injury Accident

It is no secret that Google is working on self-driving cars, although for now the cars are not fully autonomous as there are drivers placed behind the wheel to take over in an emergency situation. That being said, so far Google’s record has been pretty good as all the accidents that their cars have been aren’t actually their fault.

However in the latest incident, it seems that injuries were sustained. According to Google, the self-driving Lexus SUV was rear-ended in Mountain View, and according to the three employees who were in the car, they claimed to have experienced a minor form of whiplash and were checked out at a hospital before being cleared for work.

Like we said, this isn’t the first time that Google’s self-driving cars have gotten into accidents, but so far none of them were actually caused by the self-driving car that might have run amok. Instead Google has attributed these accidents to drivers who might not be paying attention on the road while driving and might have been distracted, like texting while driving, or maybe even trying to snap a photo of the self-driving car while driving.

According to the head of Google’s self-driving car program Chris Urmson, “The clear theme is human error and inattention. We’ll take all this as a signal that we’re starting to compare favorably with human drivers.” To that end, Google is now looking into ways of alerting drivers in the event a potential accident has been detected.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Transportation
Tags: Google, Self-Driving Cars